Thursday, January 3, 2013

Chocolate chip cookies from Baking for Friends

Despite the fact that I live with three men who love chocolate chip cookies, I don't bake a lot of them. That, however, is about to change, because yesterday I made Kathleen King's Chubby Tates.

King owns Tate's Bake Shop, the revered bakery in the tony New York town of Southampton. I've been there, and I've bought cookies there. Tate's thin, crispy chocolate chip cookies are famous, but not my family's style.

Baking for Friends is just my kind of dessert book. Nothing fancy or overdone. These are the kinds of sweets I bake for my friends. I can't wait to try the rhubarb swirl rolls, chocolate-pear tea bread, and chocolate blood orange marble cake. I've already shopped for the chestnut brownies, with luxurious creme de marrons mixed into the chocolate batter. And my husband has requested the chocolate pecan pie.

With the publisher's permission, I'm sharing the Chubby Tates recipe with you. I'll be as clear as I can: Bake some right now. King suggests freezing balls of unbaked dough - I took her advice and have a zip-top bag of Chubby Tates dough balls waiting for our next cookie craving.

Note: The recipe calls for one tablespoon of corn syrup, which I didn't have on hand. I used honey instead and thought no one would notice. My husband took one bite and said "Is there honey in this cookie? Because it's spectacular!" Do whatever feels right to you.

By the way, my husband thinks this picture looks "like a toadstool." Does it? Be honest.

print recipe

Chubby Tates chocolate chip cookies

by Kathleen King January-3-2013

Thick, chewy, soft chocolate chip cookies from the book BAKING FOR FRIENDS by Kathleen King.

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed

12 Tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) salted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 Tablespoon light corn syrup

1 large egg, at room temperature

1 egg yolk, at room temperature

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions

Position the oven racks in the top third and center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, beat the brown sugar, butter, granulated sugar, and corn syrup with an electric mixer set on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Beat in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, mix in the flour mixture, just until combined. Mix in the chocolate chips.Using 2 Tablespoons per cookie, drop the dough about 3 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets. (Or use a 1-ounce food portion scoop to scoop the dough onto the baking sheets.) The mounds of dough can be frozen on the baking sheets until hard, then transferred to a zip-tight plastic bag and frozen for up to 1 month. Bake without thawing.Bake, rotating the positions of the sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through baking, until the cookies are lightly browned on the edges, about 18 minutes. (If using frozen cookies, bake for about 20 minutes.) Let cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire cooling rack and let cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough, on cool baking sheets.